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What common vegetable has risen from a dreaded "poisonous love apple" to the most popular home-grown crop?

Tomatoes are America's favorite vegetable. They are prolific, easy to grow, and a vine-ripe, home-grown tomato will beat a store-bought version by a mile any day.

Without taking up much room, just a few plants can supply a family with all the tomatoes needed for salads and hamburgers.

Here are 10 keys to a successful tomato garden:

Planting Dates: If you are contemplating a big planting, play it safe and set out transplants a week or two after the average last frost day (about mid-March for the Tyler area). But, if you are only growing a few plants, you can gamble and plant now and be ready to protect them with mulch, hay, blankets, etc. If you win, you'll be harvesting earlier and escaping some of the problems that come with fruit maturing later in summer. If nature beats you with a killer freeze, then just buy more transplants and you'll still be in the game.

Tomatoes tolerate cool soil quite well, unlike peppers and eggplants which require warmer soils.

Location: For maximum production and minimum disease problems, tomatoes must be grown in full, all day sun (8 to 10 hours). Yields will drop as shade increases.

Soil preparation: Tomatoes do best in well-drained, highly organic soils. Create raised beds to increase drainage, prevent flooding and warm up the soil faster in the spring. Add lots of organic matter every year when preparing the soil. It is better to use well-composted material rather than fresh or raw material.

Tomatoes respond very well to organic fertilizers such as rotted manure, cotton seed meal, etc. In the spring, these materials are slowly released, but in warmer summer soil are more rapidly available. Animal manures can be used at a rate of 60 to 80 pounds per 100 square feet.

New garden spots need a complete fertilizer such as 10-20-20 worked into the soil at planting time (unless a soil test indicates otherwise). Use about 2 to 3 pounds per 100 square feet - less in sandy soils or those amended with manure. Soil pH is also important for tomatoes and all garden crops. Tomatoes don't do well in soils with a pH less than 6.0, and many East Texas soils are in that category. The addition of dolomitic limestone raises the pH, plus adds important nutrients including calcium and magnesium. The additional calcium helps reduce the incidence of blossom end rot when fruit is beginning to mature.

Variety Selection: Never plant just one variety. You'll greatly increase your chances of success regardless of environmental conditions by growing more than one variety. There are many varieties on the market, with choices ranging from the newest hybrids, the old stand-bys, and old heirloom varieties. If you want to grow some the lesser known, or brand new varieties, you'll need to start your own seed.

Some standard large-fruited recommendations that work well in East Texas include "Carnival,'' "Celebrity,'' "Bush Celebrity,'' "Champion,'' "Dona,'' "Early Girl,'' "Heatwave,'' "Mount Pride,'' "Summer Flavor 5000.''

Just a couple of plants of the small-fruited types, also called cherry tomatoes, will keep you in bite-size fruit all summer. "Sweet 100,'' "Sweet Million,'' "Juliet,'' "Yellow Pear,'' "Sweet Chelse'' are common varieties of this type.

If you know you have nematodes (knotted or gnarled roots on plants such as tomatoes, carrots, okra), then grow only varieties identified with an "n'' after the name for nematode resistance. Of those varieties mentioned above, "Celebrity,'' "Carnival,'' "Summer Flavor 5000'' and "Better Boy'' are some that have nematode resistance.

Use a Starter Fertilizer: Any water-soluble fertilizer high in phosphorus (the middle number in the guaranteed analysis) can be used to give newly planted tomatoes a source of nutrients that's immediately available.

Stake or Cage: Without a doubt, the best tomatoes will be produced when the plants are given some sort of support.

Reinforced wire cages make the sturdiest and lasting cages.

Staking results in earlier, but fewer tomatoes, while caging yields the highest numbers. Cages provide frames for wind and frost protection, and can be wrapped in floating row covers for wind and insect protection. Plants left to sprawl on the ground develop more disease problems.

Side dress During Growing Season: If you are growing the newer hybrid types of tomatoes, they need and respond to regular supplemental applications of nitrogen during the growing season. After the plants set their first cluster of fruit, apply one to two tablespoons of ammonium sulfate (21-0-0) per plant by sprinkling it uniformly over a six-foot diameter circular pattern over the mulch or soil around each plant. Then, immediately irrigate with one inch of water.

Control Insects: Worms or caterpillars will often visit tomato plants. They can be easily controlled by using Dipel, Thuricide, or Biological Worm Killer - all contain the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis which kills only caterpillars and does not harm beneficial insects or other animals. Be on the look out for spider mites which favor tomatoes during hot weather. Avoid using carbaryl (Sevin) on tomatoes because it can result in more mites.

Control Diseases: The most common disease that can seriously affect tomatoes is septoria leaf spot which creates small black spots on the leaves. Leaf diseases are more prevalent during extended rainy periods and when foliage is repeatedly wetted by sprinkler irrigation.

Water and Mulch: Mature tomatoes require one inch of water per week. If rainfall is lacking, you must apply the water. Plants growing in sandy soils need more frequent watering, but with a lesser amount versus clay soils.

Use your built-in water meter - your finger! If moisture is present in the soil, DON'T WATER. More plants are killed by overwatering than by not enough water. Drip irrigation in an excellent method for watering, promoting excellent growth by keeping the soil evenly moist without wasting water. Organic material can and should be used as a mulch around your plants. Mulches keep plants more evenly moist (which is important to help prevent blossom end rot), help control weeds and moderate soil temperature.

Keith Hansen is Smith County Horticulturist with Texas AgriLife Extension Service. His web page is http://EastTexasGardening.tamu.edu.

His Blog is http://tce-blogs.tamu.edu/mt/etg Texas AgriLife Extension Service educational programs are open to all individuals without regard to race, color, sex, disability, religion, age or national origin.